ACHS Panthers turn to defense in area-round playoff win

With the 3-pointers not regularly falling and Chris Stephens soaring at the other end of the court, the Abilene Christian High Panthers resorted to defense Friday night in their TAPPS Class 2A area-round basketball playoff.

After watching a 10-0 start become a 20-19 deficit, the Panthers tightened their defense and pulled away to a 68-50 win over Rockwall Christian in the ACHS gym.

The fourth-ranked Panthers, now 26-3, take on the winner of today’s game between Dallas Cambridge and Waco Texas Christian. The game likely will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in either Weatherford or Dublin.

“We stepped our defensive intensity and got a lot of stops,” said Kashus Lyons, who had 18 points and often dueled airborne with Stephens in the second half. Just a sophomore, Stephens had a game-high 24 points for the Warriors (19-13), often hanging in the air longer than his defender to get a shot or add a trip to the foul line.

ACHS coach Michael Bacon called Stephens one of the best players at the 2A level and said his team worked his practice to prepare.

“He’s going to get his points,” Bacon said. “His elevator goes up another floor.”

Under more pressure in the second half, Stephens was not as effective and had his shot altered several times by the Panthers.

After being outscored 20-9 to fall behind a point with 5:13 left in the first half, ACHS roared back, starting with Lyons’ drive to the basket. A 3-pointer by Harrison Hancock, who had five of his team’s seven treys, made it 30-20 with just a minute to go and ACHS went into halftime up 35-22 after Hancock banked in a trey at the buzzer.

Stephens had 10 of his team’s 12 points in the second quarter.

The Panthers, not bashful about taking 3-point shots, fired six quick misses from beyond the arc to start the second before Hancock connected. But the teams only had exchanged two buckets during that stretch and Hancock’s hoop gave ACHS a 42-26 lead. It was 48-31 on a trey by Nick Murray, who had his team’s two other 3-pointers.

ACHS, which was 7-of-33 from three-point range, twice built its lead as large as 20 points before taking the 18-point win.

“We shoot a lot of 3s; some night they don’t fall,” Bacon said. So it was defense and working inside the lane with Lyons, Juno Wong and Nick Murray to soften the Warriors.

Rockwall coach Ryan Hankins said turnovers — his team had 27 — and the lack of a third scorer hurt. Helping Stephens was Daniel Rorde with 14. The rest of the team had 12 points total.

The Panthers had four scorers — Hancock at 19, with Murray adding 17 and Wong 14.

Lyons liked the defensive effort.

“We got a lot of rebounds,” he said. “That was one of our best defensive games all year, and (Rockwall) was the best team we’ve played.”